


Tate Langdon Gets a Visit

by natigail



Category: American Horror Story: Murder House
Genre: Canon Compliant, Depression, Evan Peters is so adorable as Tate in this one, F/M, Ghosts, Guardian Angels, Mentions of self-harm, alive Tate Langdon, but no explicit scenes, dead Tate Langdon too, i wrote this after having binge watched the first season of AHS, the original characer comes to see Tate the day before he dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-27 02:58:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9948998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natigail/pseuds/natigail
Summary: Tate is alive but he's in a downwards spiral and he’s about to reach his breaking point and do something horrible. He doesn’t know why someone would watch over him but is the mysterious girl able to help him?





	1. Before

“Tate Langdon,” the voice calls out, feminine and delicate. 

The startled eighteen-year-old man nearly jumps off his bed in surprise. He had his head buried in a book while listening to his favourite music. He shouldn’t be surprised, not after having lived in this house for a while. He’s seen shadows of people, whispers and unidentifiable screams in the middle of the night. Many murders occurred in this house and he’s seen their ghosts before but the girl in front of his closed door looks very much alive. 

“Who are you?”

She smiles, her slender face scrunching up to become more circular. He notices how she’s pretty and his age but he has no idea what she’s doing in here. She’s not a friend. Tate doesn’t have friends. 

“That is not important in the grand scheme of things, Tate. However, I can assure you I wish you no harm unlike other entities you may have encountered in this house.”

“You know about them?” he asks, his interest piqued. “Do you see them too?”

He thought he was going mad. He had always felt different than other kids but it has rapidly escalated since they moved into this place. 

“Yes, I am aware of all the restless souls that live under this roof. This house is very special but it’s toxic, Tate. It’s dangerous for most people and I fear it will be fatal to your sensitive mind.”

Tate scuffs. His mother calls him sensitive and smacks his head. He might be her only child without a physical disability but he fears he might have one in the head instead. 

“I do not mean to alarm you,” she says, her voice adapting a solemn tone, “but it is essential that you get out of this house immediately. Your family will fall apart because of this house and you…”

“My family is already broken and fallen apart!” Tate says, leaping off the bed while tears begin to pool in his eyes. “That guy my mother is sleeping with? He killed my brother!”

She steps forward, elegant as she walks and he sees how she’s almost a mirrored image of him clothing-wise; a band Tee and jeans, hair flat and un-styled but longer. 

He flinches when she slides her fingers up his arms, pulling back the fabric covering them to reveal the cuts all up along his arms. Almost too many horizontal cuts to count. 

“I know about Beau,” she says. “I know about your mother and Larry. I know you’re confused and self-harming is the only thing that makes sense to you right now but I need you to listen to me, Tate. Can you do that?”

He shakes his head. He’s still not sure who she is. He wants to scream in her face but at the same time he doesn’t want her to leave. He never talks to anyone outside of his family and it’s oddly refreshing despite her mysterious appearance. 

She takes his hands in hers, gently as if she’s afraid that he’ll break. 

“You need to leave the house, Tate. You only have a sliver of hope left. These cuts are proof of your progression. Your depression is hurting you deeply but it’s not yet claiming your life. Do not let it. You can still fight it and change your story from a tragic one to a happy one.”

“Like anyone is happy,” Tate mutters and yanks his hands out of hers and start pacing the room. “I’m not well. Maybe Larry will try and smother me with a pillow as well. For all I know, you might just be my mind playing tricks on me.”

The pretty girl sighs and Tate almost wants to apologise. There’s something in the air of his room that’s never been there before. It’s not heavy with the deep dark thoughts that spurt from his brain. It’s dulled momentarily. 

“You are about to snap,” she continues, staring at the ground unable to make eye contact. “Tate, you have been poorly treated your whole life but the light inside of you are in serious danger of blowing out if you don’t get as far away from this place as possible. It’ll claim you for its collection and your family as well. You cannot let the dark thoughts win.”

“What are you even talking about?” 

She’s making his head hurt. 

“Tate,” she says his name again and it’s so tender that it almost makes him doubt whether she’s truly calling his name or saying something else. He’s never known tenderness and his name sounds foreign in that tone. 

“You are capable of horrible acts. I just don’t want to let your dark impulses control you.”

“What does it matter anyway? We’re all going to die. I’d be better off dead.”

He speaks the words that his mind has told him countless of times. Depression sneaks up on you but once it takes its hold, you’ll forever be marked by it and what you went through.

“Please, I beg of you. There is innocence at stake; yours and too many others. Don’t turn to violence, Tate.”

“Go away,” he says the words out loud sternly. It’s the words that make all the creatures of this house scatter. They have to listen if you tell them to go away but the girl in front of him doesn’t vanish.

“Remember what I told you, Tate. Don’t go through with it. You will regret it,” she says.

“I told you to go away! Get out of my head!”

Her face falls into sadness and he turns away as it’s too miserable to look at. Once he looks back up, she’s gone. 

He breathes out.


	2. After

“I’ll wait. Forever, if I have to,” Tate tells a fellow ghost Hayden as he’s spying inside on the ghosts of the Harmons setting up a Christmas tree in the living room of their former house. 

“Tate.”

Both Hayden and Tate spin around to find a young girl standing in the driveway. 

“Who are you?” Hayden demands to know, instantly suspicious and she classifies the girl as a ghost since her and Tate have not made themselves visible. 

She could just have turned and looked at the guy beside her because he remembers the girl very well. Even after seventeen years. 

“Hello Hayden, I’m sorry but I am only here to speak with Tate,” the girl says and with a wave of her hand Hayden disappears. 

Tate’s too confused to say anything. 

“I just sent her back inside, Tate,” the girl explains as she walks up to him and glimpses inside the window. “Violet is your true love, huh?”

At the mention of the girl – well… ghost – he loves, he finally speaks. 

“You were in my room days before I was… before I did…”

“Say it,” she challenges but her voice is soft and compassionate rather than harsh. 

“Before I killed the people at my school.”

“You’ve come a long way in the past year, Tate. I’m proud of your progress, even though I never wanted you on this path.”

The girl looks just the same as she did back when she came to see him in his room while he was still alive. She hasn’t changed one bit, or did she always look so similar to Violet?

“You’re some kind of special spirit, aren’t you? Stronger or something?”

“No,” she says and actually chuckles. “I’m more in the realm of guardian angel but a failed one at that, clearly.”

He tenses. 

“Set fire to someone, a school massacre that took 15 young lives, murders, rape and violence in all imaginable ways,” the girl lists off his crimes not dissimilar to how he did earlier. “I’m proud you’ve finally accepted what you’ve done. You’ve lived with the guilt of denying it for almost longer than you were alive.”

“I had to do it. I had to punish Larry for killing Beau. It was only fitting he should be burned like his previous family,” Tate chimes in, smile on his lips as his inner psychopath shows itself. 

“No, you didn’t have to, Tate. You were dealt a terrible hand, yes, but you still had the ability to make choices. I warned you what would happen if you let the dark thoughts guide you. The house claimed you and your entire family. Your sister Addie died right outside these steps. Your mother is now caring for the child you fathered through rape. Your spawn is inherently evil in a way you never was.”

“Why are you saying all these horrible things!” Tate yells and clutch onto his head. “I know about all the terrible things but I’ve changed. I love Violet. I tried to save her when she died. I’d do anything to protect her. I’ll love her forever and she’ll keep me sane.”

“I hope that is true, Tate. You do have an eternity to work it out, presuming the house stands. But dear boy, I find it unlikely she’ll forgive you.”

“Shut up!” he screams. This spirit or pretend guardian angel can say whatever she wants about what he has done. But she cannot say anything about Violet. 

“Tate,” she calls with the sweet voice and before he knows what’s happened, she’s embraced him in a hug. His rapid breathing slowly dies down as he clutches onto her. 

“I love her so much,” he cries. 

“I know. It was that kind of love that awaited you if you hadn’t gotten yourself killed, Tate. Only that love would not have broken into the mess that are you and Violet. I’m sorry you never got to have it but evil will block out your chances of happiness.”

“Do you think I’m evil?” Tate asks, afraid to let go of the arms around him. She’s much smaller than he is but somehow she seems comforting. 

“No, I think you’ve done evil things though. You turned into a monster without remorse. I’m glad you haven’t lost all of it, as proof in your love for Violet. But you will always be stuck here, Tate. They’ll be no rest for you.”

“I never caught a break while I was living either,” he jokes and finally breaks the embrace. “I need Violet to take me back.”

“Perhaps, she will,” the girl says with a reserved smile. “I have to be on my way. I’m not really supposed to check in on you at all but I couldn’t help myself. I always felt like I failed you, Tate, and for that I’m sorry.”

It was a new thing for Tate to hear this genuine remorse from someone after they felt they had let him down. His mother neglected him, his father left him, Larry killed his brother and the kids at school made his life a living hell and none of them ever said anything. Yet this whatever-she-was said it so sincerely. 

“I’ll be good from now on, I promise,” he felt compelled to say. He always wanted to be good; he’d never wanted to turn out like he did. 

“I hope that’s true, Tate,” she said before she disappeared and left him for good. 

Tate glanced back inside the windows of the house that had taken so much from him. He would be good. He had to be. He hadn’t been able to be good while he was alive but he still had a chance to turn his afterlife around and win Violet back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After I finished the first season of Amercian Horror Story, I just randomly sat down to write this. It’s incredible how the writers made you “care” for a mass murder and I wanted to give him someone who only showed him kindness, though she could not save save him from himself. I’m not sure exactly what this peace of writing is but I hope you liked it.
> 
> It's the only season of AHS I've watched all the way through. I sort of got stuck on season 2... maybe I'll start watching it again at some point.
> 
> Find more of my stories under my profile or at https://www.wattpad.com/SecretNRB & http://secretlywritingstories.tumblr.com
> 
> Thank you so much for reading. As always, feedback is highly appreciated. Come talk to me @natigail on Tumblr or use the comment section below.


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